ON TASAWWUF Imam al-Junayd al-Baghdadi (d.
297)

The Imam of the world in his time, al-Junayd al-Baghdadi, said
defining a Sufi:

al-sufi man labisa al-sufa `ala al-safa

wa ittaba`a tariq al-mustafawa

athaqa al-jasada ta`m al-jafa

wa kanat al-dunya minhu `ala qafa

The Sufi is the one who wears wool on top of purity, followed
the path of the Prophet, endured bodily strains dedicating his
life to worship and reclining from pleasures, and left behind all
that pertains to the world.1

The text of al-Junayd's book Kitab dawa' al-arwah
(Book of the cure of souls) was edited in Arabic and translated
into English by the scholar A.J. Arberry.2